Britain pledges to send more lethal weapons to Ukraine
April 1, 2022, 7:11 am

Britain pledges to send more lethal weapons to Ukraine

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The We For News reported, British Defense Minister Ben Wallace said on Thursday that the UK and “a number of [other] countries” are sending more arms to Ukraine in a bid to hold back the Russian military. Britain has already sent thousands of anti-tank missiles into the war-torn country.

Wallace told reporters after a donor conference in London aimed at increasing arms shipments to Kiev: “There’ll be more lethal aid going into Ukraine as a result of today. A number of countries have come forward either with new ideas or indeed more pledges of money.”

Wallace said that Britain’s latest cache of weapons would include longer-range artillery, ammunition, and anti-air missiles.

The UK has already donated more than 4,000 NLAW anti-tank weapons to Ukraine, at a cost of £20,000 ($26,300) per disposable unit.

Earlier this week, Prime Minister Boris Johnson told his cabinet that he wants to send Kiev “more lethal” weapons, reportedly mentioning artillery, anti-ship missiles, and more advanced air defense systems. It is unclear whether the air defense systems mentioned by Johnson and Wallace would be shoulder-fired missiles, like the ‘Stinger’ units already sent by some NATO countries, or larger vehicle-mounted missile batteries.

Britain's Defence Secretary Ben Wallace listens to Japan's Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga at the start of their meeting at the prime minister's official residence in Tokyo, Japan on July 20, 2021. (Photo: REUTERS)

Sending the latter into Ukraine would pose problems of its own, as Russia has declared convoys of military equipment to be “legitimate targets” once on Ukrainian territory.

The effectiveness of the weapons already sent by the UK is hotly debated. The Ukrainian government claims to have destroyed far more Russian equipment than Moscow records lost, while the Russian government says that its military operation is proceeding according to plan. Russian troops have successfully tied down Ukrainian forces near Kiev, and are now being withdrawn to concentrate on “the final stage of the operation” – defeating the Ukrainian military in the Donbass region, Moscow insisted on Wednesday.

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For the Ukrainian military, foreign arms shipments are essential, as the country’s defense industry has been “practically destroyed,” an adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, Alexey Arestovich, said this week

Moscow attacked its neighbor in late February, following Ukraine’s failure to implement the terms of the Minsk agreements signed in 2014, and Russia’s eventual recognition of the Donbass republics in Donetsk and Lugansk. The German and French brokered protocols had been designed to regularize the status of those regions within the Ukrainian state.

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Russia has now demanded that Ukraine officially declare itself a neutral country that will never join the US-led NATO military bloc. Kiev insists the Russian offensive was completely unprovoked and has denied claims it was planning to retake the two republics by force.

Source: wefornews

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Upon arriving to participate in the summit of the European Political Community, which includes around forty heads of state in Budapest, he said, "I look forward to sitting with the elected U.S. president and seeing how we will collectively ensure we meet challenges, including the threats from Russia and North Korea." He also noted that the strengthening of ties between Russia and North Korea poses a threat to the United States as well, according to reports from Agence France-Presse.

Before Trump's victory, Rutte expressed confidence that a united Washington would remain part of the defensive alliance, even if Trump became the 47th president of the United States. In an interview with German public broadcaster ZDF last Monday night, he stated that both Republicans and Democrats understand that NATO serves not only the security of Europe but also that of America. He added that both candidates are aware that the security of the United States is closely tied to NATO.

On Wednesday, NATO congratulated Trump on his victory but did not address the Ukrainian issue.

It is noteworthy that the relationship between the elected U.S. president and the defense alliance was not the best during his first term in the White House. Trump criticized NATO member states multiple times and even hinted at withdrawing from the alliance unless they increased their financial contributions.

Additionally, the issue of the Russian-Ukrainian war is one of the matters that complicate relations between the two sides, especially since Trump has repeatedly stated that he can end this ongoing conflict, which began in 2022, quickly. He implied that he had a peace plan between Kyiv and Moscow, while his vice president, JD Vance, revealed aspects of that plan, which stipulated Ukraine's commitment not to join NATO, thereby sending reassuring signals to the Russians.

Furthermore, many NATO member states in Europe fear that Trump might halt military aid to Ukraine after he previously criticized the U.S. for pouring funds into supporting Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.